Altium Develop vs MATLAB

Autodesk Fusion

Wolfram Mathematica

DraftSight

Civil 3D

Scilab

PaleBlue

Compare Altium Develop and MATLAB based on features, pricing, verified reviews, integrations & more on GetApp. Find out which software is best for your business in 2026.

PaleBlue is a cloud-based solution which helps businesses of all sizes manage training processes and streamline workflows using augmented, virtual reality and 3D simulations, enabling users to import 3D models from multiple computer-aided design (CAD) sources to automatically optimize designs.

DraftSight is a 2D CAD drafting and 3D design software for architects, designers, engineers, and builders. The platform allows users to create construction documents, scale drawings, and generate technical illustrations faster. 


Civil 3D is an on-premise engineering CAD software designed to help businesses with surface modeling, construction documentation, and plan production. Managers can create triangulated irregular network (TIN) surfaces, display point cloud data, and create dynamic surfaces.

Altium Develop is a collaborative environment that unifies every stage of electronic product creation, seamlessly connecting requirements, design, supply chain, and manufacturing to streamline workflows, enhance visibility, and accelerate innovation.

2D Drawing

3D Imaging

Access Controls/Permissions

Bills of Material

CAD Tools

Change Management

Collaboration Tools

Compliance Management

Configuration Management

Content Library

Customizable Fields

Data Capture and Transfer

Data Import/Export

Data Visualization

Design Analysis

Design Management

Document Generation

Document Management

Electrical

File Management

Manufacturing Design Data

Mechanical

Mechatronics

Process Control

Project Management

Project Templates

Version Control

Altium Develop

Web-based

Windows

Chief Engineer

Nothing is as unstable and poorly implemented in my opinion as Altium. The fact that they charge so much for it just adds to the insult.

Design engineer 

One of the best tool which is available for the easy of use and good customer support.

PCB Librarian

I work as a librarian and this program is one of my favorite. It's easy to use and the 3d feature is very nice.

Student

I really like the ability to make files of the PCB to send online PCB manufacturing service. Altium supports 3D view and we can clearly see how to fit PCB on my CAD design.

Emmbedded hardware engineer

Simulation tools are really good and natural to use. Altium also have a big community and lots of online resources to solve all issues that you could have.

engineer

The worst thing about Altium Designer software is its high cost compared to some other similar products in the market.

I think it is the best software package available for PCB design. Highly recommend if it's within budget.

I enjoy the ease of use of the features, especially in the drawing schematics.

All the features i need is integrated in the same software which make my work easier. Easy to do nice looking designs.

The routing tools and placement during layout are very, very good.

Electrical Engineer

They're not the first company to have this problem.

Electronic Engineering Undergraduate

As an Electronics Engineering undergraduate, overall design experience with Altium Designer is great. I have used this software to develop many PCBs throughout my academic carrer.

Sr. PCB Design Engineer

Easy to manage licensing. Great tool to work anywhere.

Development Engineering Manager

The suite of products that you can buy beyond the standard schematic capture, layout, and routing, creates ala carte options that nickel and dime you to an annoying degree.

Field Applications Engineer

I would recommend it for both simple designs and also more complex multi layered board designs, it handles everything well and is also very easy to use.

Principal engineer

Ease of use and it’s very intuitive for the comers.

Research assistant

Great PCB designing tool with lot of features.

Easy integration with desktop application and online viewer.

Altium Develop screenshot: 3D View Editor in Altium Develop transforms the standard 2D PCB workspace into a fully interactive, three‑dimensional design environment. Users can toggle between 2D and 3D modes, then zoom, pan, and rotate the board freely.

Altium Develop screenshot: Project History in Altium Develop provides a browser-based, visually chronological timeline of a project's key events such as: creation, commits, releases, clones, and MCAD exchanges offering version control transparency directly within workspace.

Altium Develop screenshot: From schematic capture to PCB layout, routing, and assembly preparation, every step flows seamlessly in one platform. Smart placement and routing features make complex designs faster, easier, and more reliable.

Altium Develop screenshot: BOM Portal is a cloud-native, procurement-focused tool within Altium Develop that transforms traditional Excel-like Bill of Materials (BOM) workflows by integrating live supply chain, compliance, and pricing data.

Altium Develop screenshot: Workspace Projects provide a cloud-native, version-controlled hub within Altium Develop that simplifies electronic project management with centralized storage, collaboration, and built-in Git-based version control.

Altium Develop screenshot: The Requirements Portal is a cloud-native, AI‑enhanced requirements engineering platform within Altium Develop that streamlines the definition, breakdown, and management of technical requirements.

Freelancers

Large Enterprises

Mid Size Business

Small Business

Scilab is an open-source numerical computation software that helps businesses in aerospace, automotive, energy, metallurgy, pharmaceutical, and research sectors perform algorithm testing or numerical computation across engineering and scientific applications. Key features include numerical analysis, data visualization, debugging, and application development.

Wolfram Mathematica is a simulation solution that offers a variety of functions including natural language input, real-world data capabilities, high-powered computation, and more. The platform provides various features such as machine learning, data science, and visualization. Its intuitive interface, predictive suggestions, and rich document organization make it incredibly user-friendly.

Autodesk Fusion is a 3D CAD, CAM, and CAE tool that combines industrial and mechanical design, simulation, collaboration, and machining to connect the entire product development process in an integrated, concept-to-production toolset

MATLAB is a programming and numeric computing platform, which enables businesses and educational institutions to create models, develop algorithms, analyze data sets and more. Professionals can use the live editor to create scripts and enhance code with hyperlinks, images, and headings.


AI/Machine Learning

Civil

Customizable Dashboard

Customization

Data Discovery

Data Management

Data Mining

File Storage

Forecasting

Graphical Data Presentation

Mathematical Modeling

Modeling & Simulation

Monte Carlo Simulation

Presentation Tools

Regression Analysis

Reporting & Statistics

Reporting/Analytics

Search/Filter

Statistical Analysis

Statistical Process Control

Statistical Simulation

Survival Analysis

Time Series Analysis

MATLAB

Research Assistant

It has a huge built-in library for functions and tools, so it is simple to utilize Matlab when used properly. More importantly, it has a great GUI tool that can make great applications with ease.

Self-Employed

MATLAB is super great as it is so intuitive to use. Literally used it in so many of my courses like Orbital Mechanics and Compressible flow.

Sales/IT Associate

MATLAB is great for quick prototyping and data analysis. It is easy to learn and has great online support and help documentation.

IT junior

I like everything about it. I am an expert on it and I brought it to our department, it is super good to quick data analysis.

Team Lead

It's a super powerful platform that is very customizable and flexible. You can create some very impressive things with it.

Department Fellow

But, MATLAB is best for creating bulk images at a superb quality. You can create figures in almost all formats as you can imagine.

Freelancer

MATLAB  is one of the great feature which is helps in documentations. I really like it because It is very easy to learn.

The main thing I love about MATLAB is the help documentation. You can literally search for anything you want to do and its there.

Software Engineer

Simulink allows for flowchart based programming which works great with the MATLAB ecosystem. For mathematical modeling and visualizing, MATLAB is an excellent rapid prototyping solution.

This is the best app for mathematical works like Matrix calculations, interfacing programs. It is really easy to use, easy to understand.

The main downside is that MATLAB needs to make their GUI more minimalist, it's 2020 already. The other thing that I miss is an option to add semicolon automatically after every line.

Scientist

I in the past I have developed all my Scientific code in Matlab. It has a very good IDE, good programing language concepts, and could be integrated with many hardware devices.

Matlab is not easily translatable to learning other languages, and it is often the poorer choice when compared to other languages if matrix manipulation is not the goal.

Teaching Assistant

The cost for access to an entire school is $500. Its a great value for your money and there are many online resources to help students understand the code.

Entertainment Account Executive

Good computation with large datasets, one of the more used programs so you have access to lots of community help and videos to learn from.

Neuroscience Graduate Student

Sometimes new versions of MATLAB will cause previous code to no longer work, which can be very frustrating.

It's hard to fix error sometimes when the code is too long.

Data analyst

It also allows you to produce the most optimal and well-designed graphs that few other statistical software can do. On the other hand, it has a better quality-price ratio.

Altium Develop vs MATLAB Comparison (2026)

Altium Develop

MATLAB

Overview

Video & Screenshots

Pricing

User reviews

Key features

Integrations

Alternatives